Impromptu Exercises
Below are Samples from “The Impro Teachers Kit”
When you pre-order this fantastic resource you you will automatically receive a 50% discount on that purchase, the complete section on Improvisation from “Organised Chaos: A Very Practical Guide to Drama Teaching” and these sample exercises from “The Impro Teachers Kit” in a form that you can print out and use as individual cards.
ALLITERATION
Select 4 or 5 players to play a scene. Each player is given a letter of the alphabet (K, T , B, C etc). They have to use as many words as possible beginning with this letter in the scene.
ALPHABET SCENE
Can be played in small groups or pairs. This is a scene consisting of 26 lines of dialog. The first line starts with a given letter (say ’R’). Each subsequent line must start with the next letter of the alphabet until all 26 letters have been used. Players who hesitate, or use the wrong letter are eliminated.
ANIMAL PEOPLE
Select 4 or 5 players to play the scene. Players are given an animal and have to play a scene as a human with animal characteristics.
ASIDES
Select 4 or 5 players to play a scene. At any time in the scene a player can call “freeze”. At that point, s/he steps out of the scene, and tells the audience what her/his character is really thinking and then the scene continues. They are ‘unheard’ by the other characters who maintain a ‘soft freeze’ while the aside is delivered.
A TOUCHING SCENE
Select 3 or 4 players to act out a scene in which they can only use speech when they touch each other. Encourage players to be creative. Eg. hugging, fighting, massaging, washing.
ATTITUDES
Select 3 or 4 players to play a scene. Ask the rest of the group to assign attitudes to each of the players which they must express towards each other in the scene.
BORIS
Select 2 or 3 players to play this scene in which a character is interrogated. The character being interrogated is beaten up by an invisible torturer called Boris. Whenever the interrogator/s does/do not get a satisfactory answer, Boris inflicts pain on the prisoner who responds according to the form of punishment being inflicted.
DEATH IN A MINUTE
Select 4 or 5 players. The group has 60 seconds to establish a death scene. It doesn’t matter how quickly or slowly the death happens as long as it happens within a minute.
DOCUMENTARY
Any number of players could be selected to play this scene. One player is chosen as ‘the narrator’. The scene/s is/are then played in documentary style with the narrator providing direction to the rest of the players.
DOUBLE PLAYER INTERVIEWS
Divide the group into pairs. Each pair forms one character. One player sits on a chair with arms behind his/her back, and provides the body and voice. The second player kneels behind the chair and provides the arms. The situation is that of a television interview. A celebrity is being interviewed. The players decide who is to be the interviewer and who is the guest. The first sentence is given by the group leader, and the players then hold an animated conversation.
E.g.:
So you’ve just returned from the Amazon jungle Dr. Carruthers?
Tell us about your attempts to get a giraffe to speak?
We’ve been told you’ve invented a global sign language?
Is it true that you have discovered the secret of eternal youth?
I hear you’re an expert on Mongolian hand dances?
So tell us about your attempt to cross Antarctica on a trail bike?
They tell me you are the best bagpiper in the world?
ECCENTRICITIES
Select two players to act out a scene. Ask them to begin with a perfectly ordinary conversation about their work, the weather etc.
However, during the scene 4 signals are given. (eg. hand clap or whistle) On the first signal, they keep the conversation going, but behave strangely; make bizarre gestures and body movements.
On the second signal, they keep the strange movements going, and continue the conversation in gibberish. On the third signal, stop the bizarre movements, but continue the conversation in gibberish.
On the forth signal they return to normal.
EMOTION CHANGERS
Select 4 or 5 players. Ask the other players for a list of 4 or 5 emotions for each player in the scene. Write them on a blackboard/whiteboard or large sheet of paper that is visible to the performers. The scene begins with each player acting out his/her first emotion. As the scene progresses the leader calls out “Change!” and players need to act out the next emotion on the list, justifying the rapid change in emotions within the scene.
For a complete set of games, exercises and resources for teaching improvisation look at “The Impro Teachers Kit”
Harry Tawse | 
July 19, 2009 9:18 am
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